THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. (Applause.) Thank you
all for coming out to say hello. It is great to be in Mason City,
Iowa. (Applause.) I appreciate the warm welcome. It's the home of
fine corn, fine people, and fine music. (Applause.)

I'm here to ask for your help. We're less than two weeks away from
voting time. And I'd like for you to get your friends and neighbors
and remind them we have a duty in democracy to vote. (Applause.) And
get them headed to the polls, and remind them, if they want a safer
America and a stronger America and a better America, to put me and Dick
Cheney back in office. (Applause.)

My only regret is that Laura is not traveling with me today.

AUDIENCE: Awww --

THE PRESIDENT: That is generally the reaction. (Laughter.) Why
didn't you send her and you stay at home. (Laughter.) She was a
public school librarian when I met her for the second time. See, we
were in the 7th grade together in San Jacinto Junior High in Midland,
Texas. She became a public school librarian, and I met her again. I
said, will you marry me. She said, fine, just so long as I never have
to give a speech. (Laughter.) I said, okay, you got a deal.
Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that deal. She is giving a lot of
speeches, and when she does the American people see a warm,
compassionate, great First Lady. (Applause.) I am traveling in Iowa
today to give you reasons why I think you ought to put me back into
office, but perhaps the most important one of all is so that Laura is
the First Lady for four more years. (Applause.)

This morning in the Oval Office I met with our fine Vice President,
Dick Cheney. I was there, of course, to discuss national security
matters before we hit the campaign trail today. I'm proud of my Vice
President. I admit to you, he does not have the waviest hair in the
race. (Laughter.) You'll be happy I didn't pick him because of his
hairdo. (Laughter.) I picked him because of his judgment, his
experience, and his ability to get the job done. (Applause.)

I am proud of your United States Congressman, Tom Latham. He is
doing an excellent job. (Applause.) You're proud to call him
Congressman; I'm proud to call him friend. (Applause.) And I
appreciate his wife, Kathy, as well. She's a fine, fine lady. I'm
also proud to be working with your United States Senator, Charles
Grassley. I told him when I saw him -- (applause.) I saw him the
other day in Cedar Rapids. I took him aside and I said, listen, the
South Lawn at the White House has got a lot of grass. (Laughter.) I'm
proud to work with him, and with your help, I'll continue to work with
him for four more years. (Applause.)

I want to thank the House Majority Leader, Chuck Gipp, who's with
us. I want to thank all those who serve in state and local
government. I appreciate the Mayor being here. I'm honored that the
Mayor is taking time out to be here. My only advice to the Mayor is to
pave the potholes. (Laughter and applause.) I appreciate your
service, Mayor.

I want to thank all the grassroots activists. I thank you for what
you have done and what you're going to do -- put up the signs, get on
the phone, turn people out to vote, talk to your friends and neighbors,
go to your community centers, go to your coffee shops, go to your
houses of worship, remind people we have a duty. With your help, we
will carry Iowa and win a great victory in November. (Applause.)

Listen, in the last few years the American people have come to know
me. They know my blunt way of speaking. I got that from my mother.
(Laughter.) They know that sometimes I mangle the English language. I
got that from my dad. (Laughter.) Americans also know I tell you
exactly what I'm going to do, and I keep my word. (Applause.) When I
came into office, the stock market had been in serious decline for six
months. That had been an indication that our economy was sliding into
a recession. To help families and to get this economy growing again, I
pledged to reduce taxes. I kept my word. (Applause.)

The results are clear. The recession was one of the shallowest in
American history. Over the last three years our economy has grown at
rates as fast as any in nearly 20 years. Today, the home ownership
rate is at an all-time high in America. (Applause.) In the past 13
months, we've added more than 1.9 million new jobs. The unemployment
rate in America is 5.4 percent, lower than the average rate of the
1970s, 1980s and the 1990s. (Applause.) Farm income is up. The
unemployment rate in Iowa is 4.5 percent. This economy is moving
forward and we're not going to go back to the days of tax and spend.
(Applause.)

To keep this economy strong we'll continue to stand with our
farmers. I understand a good national economy depends on a good farm
economy. (Applause.) I signed a good farm bill that's helping our
farmers. We're phasing out the death tax to help our farmers keep
their farms from generation to generation. (Applause.) We have
extended contracts in the conservation reserve program, to help protect
our wildlife, to help improve land and to help our farm families.
We're expanding broad-band technology to make high-speed Internet
access available to all Americans by 2007. We're opening up markets
for Iowa farmers all across the world. (Applause.)

We are pursuing an energy strategy that encourages conservation,
increased domestic production and renewables like ethanol and
biodiesel. (Applause.) When I campaigned in your state in 2000, I
told the people of Iowa I support ethanol. I kept my word.
(Applause.) To make sure jobs remain here, America must be the best
place in the world to do business. That means less regulations on our
job creators. That means we must do something about the frivolous
lawsuits that make it hard for small business owners to expand their
companies. (Applause.) We will open up markets around the world. We
will make sure that we're wise about how we spend your money. And to
make sure this economy continues to grow, we must keep your taxes low.
(Applause.)

Now, my opponent has his own history on the economy. (Laughter.)
In 20 years as a Senator from Massachusetts, he has built a record of
-- a senator from Massachusetts. (Laughter and applause.) He has
voted to raise taxes 98 times.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: I want to remind you he voted to tax Social
Security benefits.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: He's been there for 20 years, that's about five tax
increases -- five tax increases every year. I'd call that a
predictable pattern. I'd call that an indicator. (Applause.) He
looked in the camera the other night with a straight face and said,
he's not going to raise taxes on anyone who earns less than $200,000.
The problem with that is to keep that promise he would have to break
almost all of his other ones. (Applause.) He has proposed more than
$2.2 trillion in new federal spending -- that's trillion with a "The."
(Laughter.) And so they asked him, how are you going to pay for it?
He said, oh, I'll just tax the rich. Now, we've heard that before,
haven't we?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE PRESIDENT: See, you can't raise enough money by raising the
top two brackets to pay for $2.2 trillion of new spending. There is a
gap between what he has promised and what he can deliver. And guess
who usually has to fill that gap?

AUDIENCE: We do!

THE PRESIDENT: There's also something else wrong with taxing the
rich. The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason -- (laughter)
-- to slip the tab and stick you with the bill. The good news is we're
not going to let him tax you, we're going to carry Iowa and win in
November. (Applause.)

When I came into public office too many republic [sic] schools were
passing children, grade to grade, year after year, without learning the
basics. So I pledged to restore accountability to our schools and to
end the soft bigotry of low expectations. (Applause.) I kept my
word. (Applause.) The No Child Left Behind Act is a solid piece of
reform. We're now seeing results. Our children are making sustained
gains in reading and math. We're closing achievement gaps all across
our country, and we're not going to go back to the days of low
expectations and mediocrity in our classrooms. (Applause.)

When I came into office we had a problem in Medicare -- medicine
was changing, but Medicare was not. And that was a problem. Let me
give you an example. Medicare would pay tens of thousands of dollars
for heart surgery, but not one dime for the prescription drug that
could prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first place.
That was not fair to our seniors or our taxpayers. In 2002 I remember
campaigning around your state saying that we were going to reform
Medicare so rural hospitals would be treated more fairly in the state
of Iowa. I kept my pledge. (Applause.) I kept my word. Iowa's rural
hospitals are being treated fairly. Thanks to the good work of Senator
Chuck Grassley and Congressman Tom Latham, beginning in 2006, all
seniors will be able to get prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
(Applause.)

There's more to do in health care. We need to make sure health
care is available and affordable for all our citizens. We need a
safety net for those with the greatest needs. We'll do more to make
sure our poor children are fully subscribed in our programs for
low-income families so they get the health care they need. I believe
in community health centers, places where the poor and the indigent can
get health care. Since I took office we have opened or expanded more
than 600 community health centers. We've provided care to more than 3
million patients, including many from farm communities. In a new term,
we'll open or expand another 600 centers, and we will make sure every
poor county in America has a community or rural health center.
(Applause.)

Most of the uninsured today work for small businesses. Small
businesses are having trouble affording health care. To help workers
get the health care they need we must allow small businesses to join
together so they can buy insurance at the same discounts that big
companies can buy insurance. (Applause.) We will expand health
savings accounts so workers and small businesses are able to pay lower
premiums, and people can save tax-free in a health care account they
call their own.

To make sure health care is available and affordable, we must do
something about the junk lawsuits that are running up the cost of
medicine and running good doctors out of practice. (Applause.) By
forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine, these medical lawsuits
cost the federal government $28 billion a year. That means they cost
you $28 billion a year. Lawsuits drive up insurance premiums, which
drives good doctors out of practice. I've talked to too many OB/GYNs,
for example, who are having to leave their practice because of
lawsuits. And I've met too many women who are worried about the
quality of the health care they receive because of lawsuits. You
cannot be pro-doctor and pro-patient and pro-trial lawyer at the same
time. (Applause.) I think you have to choose. My opponent made his
choice and he put a personal injury trail lawyer on the ticket.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: I made my choice. I'm standing with the docs and
the patients. I'm for medical liability reform now. (Applause.)

We have big differences in this campaign when it comes to health
care. My opponent has laid out one that calls for a bigger and more
intrusive government. Now, the other day, in the debate, he looked
right in the camera again, and he said this, he said, "The government
has nothing to do with it." I could barely contain myself.
(Laughter.) The facts are that eight out of ten people who get health
care under Senator Kerry's plan would be placed on a government
program. Those are the facts.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: He said his plan would help small businesses, yet
upon analysis, small business groups have concluded that it is an
overpriced albatross that would saddle small businesses with 225 new
mandates. I want to help our small businesses, and will through
association health plans, but we're not going to saddle them with a
bunch of new government regulations. (Applause.) My opponent wants to
move in the direction of government health care. Health decisions, in
my plan, will be made by doctors and patients, not by officials in
Washington, D.C. He can run from his plan, but he cannot hide.
(Applause.)

We'll continue to promote an ownership society in America. You
know, there's a saying that says no one ever washes a rental car.
(Laughter.) There's a lot of wisdom in that statement. See, when you
own something, you care about it. And when you own something, you have
a vital stake in the future of our country. That's why we will
continue to promote entrepreneurship. Every time a small business is
started, someone is achieving the American Dream. (Applause.)

That's why we're encouraging health savings accounts, so people can
have the security of managing and owning their own health care
account. That's why we'll continue to promote home ownership in
America. I love it when more and more people open up the door where
they live and say, welcome to my home, welcome to my piece of
property. (Applause.)

In a new term we'll take the next step to build an ownership
society by strengthening Social Security. Now, I want to take you back
to the 2002 campaign, if I might, when they ran all those ads that
said, if George W. gets elected, you will not get your check. You
remember those? I want you to remind your friends and neighbors that
they got their Social Security checks. (Applause.) No one is going to
take the Social Security check away from our seniors. (Applause.) And
as far as the baby boomers like me go, we're in pretty good shape when
it comes to Social Security. But we need to worry about our children
and our grandchildren when it comes to the Social Security system. We
need to worry about whether or not Social Security will be around when
they need it. I believe we need to think differently about Social
Security for our youngsters. For their sake, we must strengthen the
system by allowing younger workers to save some of their own payroll
accounts -- payroll taxes, in a personal savings account that they can
call their own, that the government cannot take away. (Applause.)

The other night my opponent said he's going to maintain the status
quo when it comes to Social Security. That is unacceptable. The job
of a President is to confront problems, not to pass them on to future
Presidents and future generations. (Applause.) We have a different
philosophy of government. On just about every issue my opponent is for
more authority to the United States government. I'm for more authority
to the people. (Applause.) On issue after issue, from Medicare
without choices to schools with less accountability to higher taxes, he
takes the side of bigger government. And there's a word for that
attitude. It is called liberalism. Now, he just dismisses that word
as a label. He must have seen it differently when he told a newspaper,
I am liberal and proud of it. (Laughter.) There have been people who
have judged people's records in politics -- the nonpartisan National
Journal Magazine did a study and named him the most liberal member of
the United States Senate. That takes hard work. (Laughter.) See, he
can run, but he cannot hide. (Applause.)

I have a different record and a different philosophy. I do not
believe in big government and I do not believe government should be
indifferent. I'm a compassionate conservative. I believe in policies
that empower people to improve their lives, not try to run their
lives. So we're helping men and women find the skills and tools to
prosper in a time of change. We're helping people realize their dreams
so they can find dignity and independence in America, and that is how I
will continue to lead our country for four more years. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: In a time of change -- in this time of change, some
things do not change -- the values we try to live by: courage and
compassion, reverence and integrity. In a time of change, we must
support the institutions that give our lives direction and purpose:
our families, our schools, our houses of worship. We stand for a
culture of live in which every person matters and every being counts.
(Applause.) We stand for marriage and family, which are the
foundations of our society. (Applause.) We stand for the Second
Amendment, which protects every American's individual right to bear
arms. (Applause.) We stand for the appointment of federal judges who
know the difference between personal opinion and the strict
interpretation of the law. (Applause.)

My opponent's words on these issues are a little muddy, but his
record is plenty clear. (Laughter.) He says he supports the
institution of marriage, but he voted against the Defense of Marriage
Act. He says he's -- he called himself the candidate with conservative
values, but he voted against the ban on the brutal practice of partial
birth abortion.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: He described the Reagan years as a time of moral
darkness.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: There is a mainstream in American politics, and my
opponent sits on the far left bank. (Applause.) In this campaign, he
can try to run from his record and his philosophy, but he cannot hide.
(Applause.)

This election will also determine how America responds to the
continuing danger of terrorism. The most solemn duty of the American
President is to protect the American people. If America shows
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward
tragedy. This will not happen on my watch. (Applause.)

Since that terrible morning of September the 11th, 2001, we've
fought the terrorists across the Earth -- not for pride, not for power,
but because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our strategy is
clear. We're reforming and strengthening our intelligence gathering
capabilities. We're defending the homeland. We're transforming our
military. The all-volunteer army will remain an all-volunteer army.
(Applause.) We're staying on the offensive. We will strike the
terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. We will
spread freedom and liberty and we will prevail. (Applause.)

Our strategy is succeeding. Think about the world the way it was
some three-and-a-half years ago. Afghanistan was the home base of al
Qaeda. It's where terrorists were training to inflict great harm on
America and the free world. Pakistan was a transit point for terrorist
groups. Saudi Arabia was fertile ground for terrorist fundraising.
Libya was secretly pursuing nuclear weapons. Iraq was a dangerous
place and a gathering threat, and al Qaeda was largely unchallenged as
it planned horrific attacks.

But because we acted, because the United States of America was
steadfast and resolved, Afghanistan is now a free nation and an ally in
the war on terror. (Applause.) Pakistan is capturing terrorist
leaders. Saudi Arabia is making raids and arrests. The army of a free
Iraq is fighting for freedom, and more than three-quarters of al
Qaeda's key members and associates have been brought to justice.
(Applause.) Now we're standing with the people of Afghanistan and
Iraq. When America gives its word, America must keep its word.
(Applause.)

But I want the youngsters here to hear what is happening in the
world in which you live. Think about Afghanistan three-and-a-half
years ago. There were young girls there who couldn't go to schools,
and their mothers were pulled in the public square and whipped if they
didn't toe the line of these ideologues of hate who ran the country.
They were called the Taliban. These were barbaric, brutal people.
Because we acted in our own self-interest, because we upheld the
doctrine that said, if you harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty
as the terrorist, today Afghanistan is free. Millions of people voted
in a presidential election. The first voter in the Afghan presidential
election was a 19-year-old woman. Freedom is on the march.
(Applause.)

People want to be free. That's what you've got to know. People
desire to be free. In Iraq, there will be elections in January. Think
how far that society has come from the days of torture chambers, the
days of a brutal dictator who was willing to cut the hands off people
arbitrarily. Think about the difference that is from the days of the
mass graves. See, free societies help us keep the peace. Free
societies will be hopeful societies which no longer feed resentments
and breed violence for exports. Free countries will join us in
fighting these ideologues of hate, instead of supporting them. And
that helps us keep the peace we all long for. (Applause.)

And so our mission is clear. We will help train police and armies
in Afghanistan and Iraq so people in those countries can do the hard
work of defending their own freedom. We will get those countries on
the path to stability and democracy as quickly as possible, and then
our troops will come home with the honor they have earned. (Applause.)

It is such an honor to be the Commander-in-Chief of such a great
military. And it is a great military because of the character of the
people who wear our nation's uniform. And I want to thank the veterans
who are here today for having set such a great example. (Applause.)

And I want to thank the military families who are here. And I want
you to know that we will keep our commitment to those who wear the
uniform and their families by making sure that our troops have all they
need to complete their missions. That's why I went to the United
States Congress in September of 2003 and asked for $87 billion in
supplemental funding to support our troops in harm's way, in both Iraq
and Afghanistan. I was very pleased with the overwhelming bipartisan
support for that important funding request. As a matter of fact, the
support was so strong that only 12 members of the United States Senate
voted against the funding to support our troops in combat, two of whom
were my opponent and his running mate.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: Now, let me remind you of a startling statistic,
and I want you to remind your friends and neighbors of this startling
statistic. There were only four members of the United States Senate,
four out of a hundred, who voted to authorize the use of force, and
then voted against the funding to support our troops in combat. Two of
those four were my opponent and his running mate.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: So I asked him why. I asked him about that vote.
And that's when he said, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion
before I voted against it." Now, I don't know if a lot of folks around
the coffee shops in this part of the world talk like that.
(Laughter.) I doubt they do. They continued to press them. He was
giving them a bunch of answers as to why he made that vote. One of the
most interesting ones of all is he finally just said it was a
complicated matter. (Laughter.) There's nothing complicated about
supporting our troops in combat. (Applause.)

This is America's first presidential election since September the
11th, 2001. The security of our country is at risk in ways different
from any we have before faced. We are in the midst of a global war
against a well-trained, highly motivated enemy, an enemy who hates
America for the very freedoms and values we cherish most. The next
Commander-in-Chief must lead us to victory in this war, and you cannot
lead a war when you don't believe you're fighting one. (Applause.)

Senator Kerry was recently asked how September the 11th had changed
him. He replied, "It didn't change me much at all." And this
unchanged world view becomes obvious when he calls the war against
terror primarily and intelligence and law enforcement operation, rather
than what I believe: a war which requires the full use of American
power to keep us secure. (Applause.)

Senator Kerry's top foreign policy advisor has questioned whether
this is even a war at all. Here's what he said, and I quote, "We're
not in a war on terror in the literal sense. It is like saying 'the
war on poverty.' It is just a metaphor." End quote. Confusing food
programs with terrorist killings reveals a fundamental misunderstanding
of the war we face, and that is very dangerous thinking. (Applause.)

My opponent also misunderstands our battle against insurgents and
terrorists in Iraq, calling Iraq a diversion from the war on terror.
The case of one terrorist shows how wrong his thinking is. The
terrorist leader we face in Iraq today, the one responsible for
planting car bombs and beheading Americans is a man named Zarqawi.
Zarqawi ran a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan until our military
coalition destroyed that camp. He then fled to Iraq where he got
medical treatment and continued his plotting and planning. To confirm
where he's coming from, just the other day, Zarqawi publicly announced
his sworn allegiance to Osama bin Laden. If Zarqawi and his associates
were not busy fighting American forces in Iraq, does Senator Kerry
think he would be leading a productive and peaceful life? Of course
not. And that's why Iraq is no diversion, but a central commitment in
the war on terror, a place where our military is confronting and
defeating terrorists overseas so we do not have to face them here at
home. (Applause.)

You cannot lead our nation to decisive victory on which the
security of every American family depends if you do not see the true
dangers of a post-September the 11th world. The war against terror
requires all our resources, all our strength. We will stay on the
offense. We will improve our homeland protections. And of course,
we'll continue to work with our allies and our coalition to keep us
safe.

Senator Kerry's view of alliance-building is to call them the
coerced and the bribed, is to insult the friends who stands with us and
try to placate countries who disagree with us. No, we'll work hard
with all our friends and allies, but I will never give a country a veto
power over our national security. (Applause.)

I believe in the transformational power of liberty. That's what I
believe. You know, I have had many conversations with Prime Minister
Koizumi of Japan. That may not seem like much to some here. But it
wasn't all that long ago, when you think about it, that we were at war
with Japan. Japan was the sworn enemy of the United States of
America. My dad fought against the Japanese; I'm confident many out
here's relatives fought against the Japanese, as well. And after we
won that war, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States, believed
in the power of liberty to transform an enemy into an ally. There was
a lot of skepticism about that during that period in our history. You
can understand why. Japan couldn't conceivably become a democracy,
people would say. Why do we want to help a country that inflicted such
harm on the United States of America, others would say. There was
pessimism and doubt.

But, fortunately, predecessors of ours believed in the power of
liberty to transform, and as a result of that belief, and because we
helped Japan become a democracy, I now sit at the table with Prime
Minister Koizumi talking about how to keep the peace we all want. Some
day an American President will be sitting down the a duly-elected
leader of Iraq, talking about keeping the peace in the Middle East.
And our children and our grandchildren will be better off for it.
(Applause.)

I believe that millions in the Middle East plead in silence for
their freedom. I believe women in the Middle East want to live in a
free society. I believe mothers and dads in the Middle East want to
raise their children in a free and peaceful environment. I believe all
these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world,
freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this
world. (Applause.)

We have climbed the mountain and we see the valley below. And the
valley below is one of peace and hope and optimism. You know, for all
Americans, these years in our history will always stand apart. There
are quiet times in the life of a nation when little is expected of its
leaders. This isn't one of those times. (Laughter.) This is a time
that requires firm resolve, clear vision, and a deep faith in the
values that makes us a great nation. (Applause.)

None of us will ever forget that week when one era ended and
another began. On September the 14th, 2001, I stood in the ruins of
the Twin Towers. I will never forget the day. I will never forget the
voices of those in their hard hats yelling at me at the top of their
lungs, "Whatever it takes." I will never forget the look in the man's
eye who grabbed me by the arm, and he said, "Do not let me down." Ever
since that day, I wake up every morning thinking about how to better
protect our country. I will never relent in defending America,
whatever it takes. (Applause.)

Four years ago when I traveled your great state in the caucuses,
and then in the general election, I made a pledge that if you gave me a
chance to serve, I would uphold the honor and the dignity of the office
to which I had been elected. With your help, with your hard work
coming down the stretch, I will do so for four more years. God bless.
Thank you all for coming. (Applause.) I appreciate you being here.
(Applause.) Thank you all. (Applause.)